I regularly log on to Facebook, more than any other social media site. At first, I thought, most of these posts have to be real because they are written by real people. Even though some are meaningless, for instance someone posts about getting a contract on a house they are trying to sell to someone sharing a passive-aggressive post about "Look in the mirror before judging others!!". The second post was definitely directed at someone, and they must have wanted their target to read their status.
But, lots of talk this week have been about the government shutdown. While it is all over the news, some of the stories, especially when someone wants to be the first to post about the man setting himself on fire on the National Mall, tend to stretch the truth. Of course, if I were just reading status updates, I would not get an accurate portrayal of the turmoil we are in, no matter if it is better, or worse.
However, I did learn something about the advertisements on my Facebook feed. In between every six or so updates on a profile, there is an option to "Like" a page. The advertisement leads the reader to a website, or an article, maybe for a product, a new show, or a website. The one I clicked on was for a Vitamin. It led me to a page with an article written my someone from Women's Health and how taking this specific vitamin changed their life. It was full of information, great results from an experiment, and an urging to buy the product, and what company to do so from.
Embarrassingly enough, I actually ordered the vitamins. I believed what I was reading. But a few days into it, I looked up the real site for Women's Health, I poked around and did research to see if Dr. Oz really endorsed it, or if 9 out of 10 women experienced the same results. I was fooled! The link and the author, though having the same heading for Women's Health was not affiliated at all. The research I did proved that no such endorsements were made, and I found nothing on any such result findings. I simply "Googled" the information, found news articles (real, credible sources) and was taught a valuable lesson. Facebook was putting advertisers on there, targeting me, to simply make a few bucks, and for whatever company that actually was to get some social media marketing.
Social media sites are not reliable for accurate information. They can be updated in a flash, that a post can be put out there before the real story is even finished. Or, links to certain advertising companies can be making false claims, and it is no big deal because all they care about is the exposure.
I am sure that sometimes Facebook and other social media sites do have credible information. Mostly though, I think that information is credible when it is a user talking about his or herself. But even then, a virtual persona may be just that, and hold no credibility at all. Unless you're there, or you know the source, or person is credible in what they post- a status update is nothing more than an attempted way to boost your status.
Rebecca, I enjoyed reading your blog post. I think you give a very honest and candid account of your experience. Even though you were fooled, it seems to me that you ended up learning something very valuable in the process, so perhaps that makes up for the money you spent in the vitamins (which, who knows, might work?).
ReplyDeleteI do think you should differentiate between Facebook as a way for people to share content and Facebook as a content producer. None of the things you see on Facebook (except for those that come directly from the organization) are produced by Facebook. That means that we should investigate the credibility of the people posting the information and the people producing the information. Keep that in mind.